Illegal immigrants overstaying their deportation day will have to pay a fine of $998 per day after their official removal date.
The Trump administration is enforcing a 1996 Clinton administration-era law. Though on the books, the law was enforced for the first time in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term, Reuters reported.
The Department of Homeland Security is also considering seizing property of immigrants who don’t pay the fine, according to emails and documents obtained by Reuters.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Reuters in a statement that illegal immigrants can “self-deport and leave the country now,” and inform the government on a Customs and Border Protection app, known as CPB Home under the Trump administration and formerly as CPB One under the Biden administration.
“If they don’t, they will face the consequences,” McLaughlin said. “This includes a fine of $998 per day for every day that the illegal alien overstayed their final deportation order.”
Reuters reported that a March 31 email shows the White House National Security Council and Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, pressed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to enforce the fines.
The next day, a CBP memo argued for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to take on the task instead, anticipating that CBP would need about 1,000 new paralegal specialists. The agency currently has 313 paralegals, according to the emails reported by Reuters.